Exploding Batteries May Yield New Ideas for Energy Efficient Computers

This has been a bad year for some electronics manufacturers. There have been several reports of laptops that simply explode and burst into flame, and at least one company had to recall a portable DVD player when it was reported to have blown up.

The problem lies in the fact that we continually demand more and more of these machines. Applications demand more RAM and more processing power, which in turn require more and more energy.

Recently, chipmaker Intel has begun to address the required “energy per instruction”, or EPI. The goal is to create chips that are not only powerful, but energy efficient as well. A more efficient chip can make for a lighter computer that runs at cooler temperatures – reducing the chances of mishap.

For awhile the trend was disturbing. The original 1993 Pentium required 13 nanojoules per instruction. Ten years later, a Pentium 4 consumed four times that much energy. The trend seems to be reversing, however. The latest Pentium chip consumes no more than the original, but has three times the processing power. The Core Duo processors consume only 10 nanojoules per instruction, yet their processing power is comparable to the Pentium 4.

The trend looks promising. The original Pentium chips in 1993 consumed 13 nanojoules per instruction. But the Pentium 4s from a couple of years ago consumed a whopping 49 nanojoules per instruction.

“There is a little good in all evil.” My grandmother said that once. If any good has come from the recent spate of laptop and DVD player explosions, it’s that the need for greater energy efficiency in computer chips has become apparent – and that the issue is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Via New Scientist

This has been a bad year for some electronics manufacturers. There have been several reports of laptops that simply explode and burst into flame, and at least one company had to recall a portable DVD player when it was reported to have blown up.

The problem lies in the fact that we continually demand more and more of these machines. Applications demand more RAM and more processing power, which in turn require more and more energy.

Recently, chipmaker Intel has begun to address the required “energy per instruction”, or EPI. The goal is to create chips that are not only powerful, but energy efficient as well. A more efficient chip can make for a lighter computer that runs at cooler temperatures – reducing the chances of mishap.

For awhile the trend was disturbing. The original 1993 Pentium required 13 nanojoules per instruction. Ten years later, a Pentium 4 consumed four times that much energy. The trend seems to be reversing, however. The latest Pentium chip consumes no more than the original, but has three times the processing power. The Core Duo processors consume only 10 nanojoules per instruction, yet their processing power is comparable to the Pentium 4.

The trend looks promising. The original Pentium chips in 1993 consumed 13 nanojoules per instruction. But the Pentium 4s from a couple of years ago consumed a whopping 49 nanojoules per instruction.

“There is a little good in all evil.” My grandmother said that once. If any good has come from the recent spate of laptop and DVD player explosions, it’s that the need for greater energy efficiency in computer chips has become apparent – and that the issue is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Via New Scientist